When you Cheer for others you cheer for yourself too!

Hey Guys & Gals,

This week has been pretty low key.  Started looking at flights to head out of town again.  Birthday Plan is looking like NEW ORLEANS. ahhhhh, a dream!  Speaking of Travel, I just had an audition for Expedia today ironically.  Thanks again to Dan Bell.  And I got to audition with My man.  We played a "real couple".  Fortunately we have practice.  He did really good!  Fingers crossed.

I also took a trip to IKEA today for a bookshelf. They are on sale right now FYI for $25. If you are in need of some organizing, I know there's a bunch left in Burbank. It's a proud moment for me when I can put something like this together myself. Not that it's very difficult, especially from IKEA but it's a reminder that I'm a self sufficient woman & Daddy didn't raise no helpless little girl! haha.
Look what I did.    

   

Speaking of Daddy, I have been playing his guitar and songs a lot this past week.  I've been re-inspired to open up his song book again. And I am also starting to reach out to some singer songwriter friends to continue to cover his music.  This summer I would like to spread his ashes per his request. But I feel like we got a little more traveling & singing to do together first.  With that said, it might be time for his last sail on the sea, by summer's end.  I'm not ready for it. At all. But I do want to make a party out of it.



Speaking of Party, this past month has been all about celebrating Joel Eckels, it was his birthday & CD release, for Weight of These Things.  His brother Shawn has been in town and they have been promoting their new song Smoking Dope & Rockin Roll.  Which coincidently they happen to have a show this weekend. Joel is bringing back The Wreckards, This Saturday MAY 2nd @ 9PM, it will be good to see the old boys back together again.  And I will finally get to hear the song about me NOT the exes! Agh! HA -   GO GO NIKKI, THE SPY.  YEAH!  It's nice to remember that I inspired something cool.

Besides being a cheerleader for him, I also have needed to remind myself to keep focused on me and my goals and I have done a pretty good job.  Being in a relationship with another Artist can be a little tricky at times but you can also learn from each other if you pay attention.  I have been seeing how hardworking & focused he has been. I have also realized something about him, myself & a lot of creative people I know.

There is a tendency to feel like you are never doing enough. Partially because we don't always see immediate results, but also because the dream is to make a living at it. And before we get there, there is a lot of job juggling between Money gigs, creative gigs & Creative Money gigs.  It feels like your spinning your wheels half the time with no results.  But it's really good to sit still at times and SEE there are results!  Take a step back from whatever it is your doing and see how far you have come!  I had to remind him of everything he accomplished over the past year and it reminded me to do the same for myself.  In fact, I am going to writing myself a list today of YOU DID IT NIKKI!!!

Starting with YOU got into a Film Festival         You revamped your cards & postcards with your    
                                                                                      Newer Headshots!

   

YOU ARE KEEPING UP WITH YOUR BLOG!  Even if it is a Day late!  haha etc etc etc

Hope you do this for yourself, and realize you are kicking ass!  The small steps count just as much as the big leaps, it all leads you to where you are going.  Keep it up!

Oh and as soon as we hit MAY, I'm making it all about ME! 

xo-

Nicole

Packing bags to go nowhere!

Hey guys & gals!

I am a day late on my weds ritual but with good reason. It was Mr. Joel Eckels' birthday yesterday and his birthday/CD release show the night before. We were moving slow but had a whole Birthday day adventure planned with his Brother who is also an extremely talented musician, Shawn Eckels. If you need a guitar shredder he's your man. I had hopes of getting tickets to Steely Dan but by the time we made the choice to go, only 3rd party companies were selling the tickets. It's crazy nose bleeds seats at $46 each, which is fine, times 4 tickets because they will only sell them in pairs, plus "service fee" plus "delivery fee" and we are looking at close the $300 when all said and done. It's ridiculous!  No wonder the music biz has been going down the shitter! It's things like that, that make people, say screw it.  They'd rather download music than buy a CD now, or watch clips on youtube instead of go out to an actual concert.  It makes me a little sad & angry. Anyway, enough of that. We ended out dropping those plans and hung around hollywood to eventually make our way to THE ROOF where our amazing chef friend Eric Greenspan gave us a little bit of a hook up!  So yummy! And 360 view of the city.  Its where I took him last year, for his 40th surprise party but that's where he decided to go again. It worked out.
     


So here's a funny thing that happened to me yesterday.  I found myself in a similar situation as last month, with my "packed bags".  Well, I'll start at the beginning.  I got GREAT NEWS our little short film Bobby & June: IMPULSE got chosen to be a guest film at THE 15 MINUTES OF FAME FILM FESTIVAL, in Orlando Florida.  And I have been looking into flights, car rentals & looking forward to seeing Family in Florida too. Well yesterday I decided, "I'M GOING!  I HAVE MONEY COMING IN, TOMORROW, I AM BOOKING MY FLIGHT!" - And within 2 hours my manager calls me.  "Nicole, I have a booking for you for an in-house commercial, it's a straight booking that I pitched you for, can I confirm you?" Asked Guido.  "Awesome, When is it?" I ask.  "April 25th" he says.  And I just laugh! That's the day our film screens, of course! haha.  So this is the same casting director who brought me in for the Auto Owners Insurance, job. And I didn't even audition for it. It's a job! You can't say no to something like that. Part of me feels like I might be missing something in Florida. The people I have the potential to meet. The joy of seeing our work appreciated and on a big screen. Seeing Family I never get to see. But work begets work! I also need to have faith & gratitude that this is still a win-win. That I am in flow. And that I am attracting good things.  And I will still be able to get to Florida soon to see some of my family.

I recently got a reading with this woman Dr. Carole Carbone.  I have had readings by her in the past. She reads the energy around you and choices you might have coming up and she is really good at coaching you back into your higher self.  But as she says, we all have free will. We have opportunities show up all the time to bring us to one direction or another. We choose the ones we take and the ones we let pass by, whether we realize it or not in the moment. Sometimes it feels easier to complain and keep choosing the same thing over and over because we know what to expect and maybe perhaps enjoy the struggle or misery. But then there are the moments when we get out of our own way, don't over analyze our options, we don't wait to hear everyone else's opinions, we don't wait for something better. We ACT. We JUMP IN BLIND. We CHOOSE. We SAY YES.  Her Advice to me was SAY YES TO EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW.  Because the oddest outing or situation can lead to meeting an important person who will help evaluate your life, or you could find yourself at the right place at the right time for a new opportunity to show up. I SAID YES, to the festival, not yet knowing how I would afford it, or the rest of the head chatter I could put myself through with excuses of why I shouldn't. But instead I said YES and as soon as I did, I booked a Job I didn't even know existed, I didn't even audition for, it literally just fell into my lap.  So now I am saying YES to that.  And we will see where that takes me next!

Happy belated Weds on this beautiful sunny Thursday!

xo - Nicole